Saturday, April 23, 2011

When I first saw this book, I thought it was a summer kind of read. I've heard it's rather emotional. The cover doesn't make it appear that way at all!

Because of the cover I did think it was going to be a beachy read that I wouldn't be able to get into.

The cover of this book is entirely misleading.

Actually, I'm ashamed to say I think I DID judge this by it's cover. I've seen it around a bunch of times, wasn't really drawn in by the cover so just skipped over it. STUPID ME! This sounds like exactly my kind of read!

Cover and synopsis are pretty misleading. Don't judge this book based on the cover.

First off, this cover is weirdly my #1 favorite of 2011 so far!

The cover is so infuriatingly off. But honestly, I don't have a better idea....maybe a portrait of Albert Camus?

The current cover sucks. They should really let readers take votes on these things before they come out.

The synopsis is a little misleading. Sure there were girls and boys, love and lust, and a beach, but that wasn't what the book was about.

The cover and the reviews I've read of this book turned out to be 2 different things.

They really should change the cover. It doesn't fit the book whatsoever.

From all the reviews I've read, I just can't get over the fact that the cover kind of gives the wrong impression

Now I'm going to tell you that this whole blurb is totally inadequate and only the very last line really describes this book, in my opinion. Also, this is the worst cover ever for this book.

These are all quotes from reviews, positive and negative, and I could go on forever and ever. These are the ones I could find in five minutes.All right, guys. I hear ya.

I did a post a while back where I responded to a lot of the "wow, your cover makes me want to go to the gym" comments I'd gotten, etc. (A quick summary of that post: you're hot, shut up, and that chick is photoshopped. I saw her when she had half the tits she has now.)

But this is kind of a different issue, yeah? Because this isn't really about what the cover looks like, but about what it says about the book.

It's a beautiful cover. I'll state that outright. It's a cover I'm proud to have on one of my books. It's doing its job and people are picking it up. I think the spine in particular is absolutely lovely. If you've seen IS in person, you'll know that the cover is made out of some kind of fantastic soft I don't even know that makes you want to put your head on it and go to sleep.

It's a beautiful cover.

But no, it's not the cover I would have chosen for this book.

So my 2012 book, Gone, Gone, Gone? It's a love story. It is so completely a love story. The WIP is a love story. I fucking love writing love stories.

Back in 2008, when I wrote IS, I did not know how to write a love story.

And I wasn't trying to. This is a story about a family.

Some of the people up there ^ are responding to a little line at the end of the goodreads description that says "Not your typical beach read." That's not part of the real blurb. That's not on the back of the book.

That's something I went in and added myself a few weeks ago.

My publisher is amazing. Hands down. And they chose a cover and a blurb that would get people to pick it up. And I think it's working. I honestly could not be happier with how many people seem to be hearing about IS and picking it up. I saw a comment on an interview the other day where a girl said that the only reason IS was popular was because it had a chick in a bikini on it. Um guys. SHE SAID MY BOOK IS POPULAR.

This cover is doing its job. My publisher knows its shit, man. It's a beautiful cover, and I have so much support from the beautiful people in-house, and damn am I proud of my little book and INCREDIBLY thankful for the people who helped me make it and nourish it and get it out into the world. I really can't say that enough, and if you take one thing away from this post, let that be it.

But see, this cover is also pissing you guys off.

And that part sucks.

You all know this, but it's worth repeating: authors don't choose their covers. Authors don't write the blurb on the back of the book. And here's one you maybe don't hear as often: authors do not know what sells.

Yes, the love triangle aspect of IS's plot has been heavily pushed. It has been since the second my then-agent read it. The two brothers sleeping with the same girl? Of course it's weird. It's the hook because it's weird. It's not a hook I'd thought of. It wasn't a major part of the story, as far as I was concerned.

Once the book sold, I amped that up and made it a larger part of the plot. I made Noah have a real relationship with Melinda. I added more fights and conversations. These things absolutely strengthened the book as a whole.

It's not as if my book was ruined by this marketing, is what I'm trying to say.

The only part of that book I can control is what happens inside of it. And the truth is, the parts of that that I think are important would make really shitty book covers. Like the girl up there said, how do you design a book cover for a book about brothers and sign language and sex and Camus?

It's not easy.

But please. That don't judge a book by its cover thing? You have to understand something.

When you don't pick up a book because of its cover, you are not punishing the design team.

When you say, I would have picked up this book, but I hate the cover, so I won't, you are not punishing the design team.

When you refuse to read a review or take a second look at a book because of its cover, you are not punishing the design team.

You are punishing the author.

There are SO MANY reasons not to pick up my book. If that's the road you want to take, pick a good reason! Make it something that I did wrong. Make it about the ugly paragraph on page whatever or the fact that you hate books about big families or that you hate philosophy or that I peed on your front lawn or I said something mean to you on twitter or you don't like my nose. Make it something about ME. About something I did. Okay, maybe not the nose thing, then.

But guys. It's a book about a family. I will tell you a zillion times if I have to. It is a book about a boy and his family. It is a book about a boy and the siblings he is co-dependently creepy close to. There is sex in. There is more sign language than there is sex. This is not a book about a girl.

Not to mention, and here's the zinger: I have made an executive decision.

If we're going by screen(page?)-time and character importance alone, that's Chase's goddamn sister (the only character in the book ever described as wearing, and I quote, "that green bikini," just sayin') on the cover and NOT the girl Chase and Noah are sleeping with.

And Claudia, the little sister, is the hero of the story. I will say that a million times too. Claudia is the hero of the story.

And in my mind, that's Claudia on the cover. That's my girl.

She deserves a cover.

And believing that makes me like my cover a hell of a lot more. Because it makes it darker and stranger and a fuckload more awkward and dirty sexy and God don't you want to put a towel on her and cover her up now? GOOD. Then read my book because you will like it. Seriously. Read this book if you want to cover up your little sister.

My point is: it's Claudia on the cover. That's my official statement. It's Claudia on the cover. And any time discussion of this cover ever comes up again, that's what I'm going to say.

And if you want to do me a favor, you will a. buy the book because bitch has to eat and b. TELL PEOPLE. You don't have to defend the cover. You don't have to like it. You don't have to offer a big explanation. But if you see a review dissing it, just leave a comment that says, "Hey, actually that's the sister on the cover."

And then walk away.

And that won't change the way a lot of people feel. But maybe, maybe it'll make a few say guhwhatthefuck? And that's why I write, really. It's especially why I write messed up shit like IS.

So. The chick on the cover. It's Claudia. And it is a beautiful cover beacause Claudia is goddamn beautiful.

It's not Melinda. It's not the girl they're sleeping with.

And really, this is all kind of appropriate, because it's Melinda's job to screw up everything.

So that's really all I have to say, so I'm going to leave you with a few things.

The first is Invincible Summer's trailer. Yeah, I just posted this. Have it again. And here's why.

1. I worked closely with Vania in developing this. I chose the images at the beginning. I also told her I wanted making out. Because making out sells, guys. That's the moral of this story. And maybe that sucks a little.

The more important reason is:

2. The voiceover? I wrote that. Just me. No input. Vania said do whatever you want, make it in Chase's voice. And I wrote that. It isn't an excerpt from the story.

And maybe it's a response to that girl, that girl that everyone assumes--and I'm not saying it's dumb to assume this, guys, it's only natural--is the girl on my cover, and therefore the girl everyone thinks is the focus of the story.

Maybe that's what the voice over is about. Maybe I'm talking about the girl who ruined it.

I don't know.

And I'll also give you links to two reviews, one positive and one negative, from two people who I think really captured what the book is about, whether or not they liked it.

I would absolutely love comments on this post, and I would also love if you would tweet the shit out of this or get it tattooed on you or otherwise let this be known to the entirety of the world. Make a song out of this post and then sing it. Put it on youtube. Add a bugle. Self-publish a book with only the words IT'S CLAUDIA ON THE COVER repeated over and over and over.

Whatever you do, be it tattoo or nothing, thank you for reading. This is all for you guys, you know?

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Nice job, guys! I especially loved seeing you name those Muser books. I'm so proud of my musers.

1. Tons of correct choices, but a few: The Naughty List/So Many Boys/A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young, Handcuffs/The Red Masque of Death by Bethany Griffin, When the Sea is Rising Red by Cat Hellisen, The Unidentified by Rae Mariz, Kiss The Morning Stare by Elissa Hoole, and I'm sure many more that I've missed. We're kind of an awesome bunch.

2. Gray!

3. Zombie Tag is out December 20th, 2011. That's just before Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah, so it's a good time to be a present for some middle grader you love.

4. Well, mine would have to be "You've been chosen as an extra in the movie adaptation of the sequel to your life" from my homegirl "Shady Lane," though earlynerdspecial's line from The Engine Driver is way up there. (Although, on my more angsty days? "As I hide behind these books I read, while scribbling my poetry/like art could save a wretch like me, with some ideal ideology/that no one can hope to achieve, And I am never real; it is just a sketch of me/And everything I made is trite and cheap and a waste of paint, of tape, of time" from Bright Eyes's "A Waste of Paint." Good times!)

So we had 16 correct answers! And our winner is...

maine character. :) yaaaaay. email me!

You guys are so fabulous, thank you for being interested in IS! I hope that if you didn't win, you'll scoop up a copy of Invincible Summer on your own. Because, you know, I think the book is pretty cool.

I think in the next few days I'm going to be addressing the issue of the cover and the cover copy that almost all the reviewers have pointed out. It's important! And we might need a refresher course on why you can't use my book to hate your body. Come on humans!

You guys are amazing, and thank you so much for giving a shit about my little book.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Happy Invincible Summer release day! I hope it's as spectacular for you as a Tuesday can be.

So here are the answers from yesterday's..

1. Abby (Also acceptable: Abigail, though I not sure she would agree with me on that.)2. Shady Lane3. "Shady Lane" by Pavement, teehee4. Wil (Zombie Tag) and Will (Break). Wil is short for Wilson, Will is short for William. Go figure.

Everyone got them right! Which means today will need to be much harder...

So we have one more scavenger hunt left! Here are the rules, same as every day:

You will have 24 hours, starting from the minute this post goes up, to answer a series of questions. You will post your answers in the comments section of this post. Some of these questions have multiple (perhaps nearly infinite) correct answers, and some do not. You must answer all correctly to have a chance to be the randomly selected winner. There will be one winner each day, and I will announce that winner in the post opening the next round of the contest. If you do not win, you are absolutely free to enter the next few rounds! If you do win, you have 24 hours to email me your mailing information before I pass off to a different winner. And please do not enter again.

To find the answers of the questions, I suggest you try some of the following strategies:

a) look deep inside yourself

b) Google it

c) copy the answers of someone who posted before you

d) ask a muser. Just saying. These guys tend to know things. They're also busy people, so you might be lucky and you might not.

e) ask me. I may take pity on you, especially if you ask me in a funny way.

f) otherwise bribe/cheat/steal. This is a lawless society.

There will be none of that +1 for following or retweeting nonsense, but I would be ever so much obliged if you would consider adding the little book in question to your goodreads shelf, because I am a goodreads whore and sometimes you need little things to make you happy.

--

Today's rules!

THE PRIZE IS:

One copy of INVINCIBLE SUMMER and one CD of INVINCIBLE SUMMER'S PLAYLIST, as well as one signed bookmark.

THE RESTRICTIONS ARE:

WE'RE INTERNATIONAL TODAY!! Enter from anywhere in the whole world. Even Antarctica!

One entry per customer. No exceptions. Don't make me come down there.

Contest ends at 5:45 PM, April 20th, 2011.And our questions are:

1) So I know you've heard of the musers. We're a family of about 25 writers. Besides mine, what are two of our published (released already or no) books?

2) As of right this minute, what color shirt am I wearing?

3) What is Zombie Tag's release date?

4) If you had to choose one lyric that best describes you and your life, what would you choose?

2. Elise (French middle name in the middle of my mega-Jewish name ftw?)

3. False

4. It's just a jump to the left and then a step to the right, put your hands on your hips and brings your knees in tight, but it's the pelvic thrust that really drives you insane. Repeat!

And the randomly selected winner is...

Karen Yuan!!! Congratulations, Karen! Please get in touch with me with your info sometime in the next 24 hours. But I'll attempt to track you down if I don't hear from you, don't worry.

Time for the 3rd of our 4 scavenger hunts, since Invincible Summer is out TOMORROW!! Oh wow.

The same rules as the days before:

You will have 24 hours, starting from the minute this post goes up, to answer a series of questions. You will post your answers in the comments section of this post. Some of these questions have multiple (perhaps nearly infinite) correct answers, and some do not. You must answer all correctly to have a chance to be the randomly selected winner. There will be one winner each day, and I will announce that winner in the post opening the next round of the contest. If you do not win, you are absolutely free to enter the next few rounds! If you do win, you have 24 hours to email me your mailing information before I pass off to a different winner. And please do not enter again.

To find the answers of the questions, I suggest you try some of the following strategies:

a) look deep inside yourself

b) Google it

c) copy the answers of someone who posted before you

d) ask a muser. Just saying. These guys tend to know things. They're also busy people, so you might be lucky and you might not.

e) ask me. I may take pity on you, especially if you ask me in a funny way.

f) otherwise bribe/cheat/steal. This is a lawless society.

There will be none of that +1 for following or retweeting nonsense, but I would be ever so much obliged if you would consider adding the little book in question to your goodreads shelf, because I am a goodreads whore and sometimes you need little things to make you happy.

--

Today's rules!

THE PRIZE IS:

One copy of INVINCIBLE SUMMER and one CD of INVINCIBLE SUMMER'S PLAYLIST, as well as one signed bookmark.

THE RESTRICTIONS ARE:

WE'RE INTERNATIONAL TODAY!! Enter from anywhere in the whole world. Even Antarctica!

One entry per customer. No exceptions. Don't make me come down there.

Contest ends at 4:30 PM, April 19th, 2011.

And our questions are (today we have a theme!) :

1) Hannah Moskowitz has one sibling. What is his or her name? (hint: are you and I facebook friends? That will help.)

2) What is Hannah Moskowitz's Absolute Write username?

3) That username is a reference to a song. What is the name of that song?

4) Here's the tricky one: A major character in BREAK and a major character in Zombie Tag have the same name, though they are spelled slightly differently. What is this name?

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Fourteen people got all four answers correct. And from those fifteen, the randomly selected winner is....

ERIN!! (though the worst lyric of that song is obviously "today never happened before.")

Congratulations, Erin! You have 24 hours to email me your info.

Now for the next scavenger hunt! These are the every day rules. Please skip if you read them yesterday:

You will have 24 hours, starting from the minute this post goes up, to answer a series of questions. You will post your answers in the comments section of this post. Some of these questions have multiple (perhaps nearly infinite) correct answers, and some do not. You must answer all correctly to have a chance to be the randomly selected winner. There will be one winner each day, and I will announce that winner in the post opening the next round of the contest. If you do not win, you are absolutely free to enter the next few rounds! If you do win, you have 24 hours to email me your mailing information before I pass off to a different winner. And please do not enter again.

To find the answers of the questions, I suggest you try some of the following strategies:

a) look deep inside yourself

b) Google it

c) copy the answers of someone who posted before you

d) ask a muser. Just saying. These guys tend to know things. They're also busy people, so you might be lucky and you might not.

e) ask me. I may take pity on you, especially if you ask me in a funny way.

f) otherwise bribe/cheat/steal. This is a lawless society.

There will be none of that +1 for following or retweeting nonsense, but I would be ever so much obliged if you would consider adding the little book in question to your goodreads shelf, because I am a goodreads whore and sometimes you need little things to make you happy.

--

NOW. For the special rules for today.

THE PRIZE IS:

One copy of INVINCIBLE SUMMER and one CD of INVINCIBLE SUMMER'S PLAYLIST, as well as one signed bookmark.

THE RESTRICTIONS ARE:

U.S. and Canada only once again (sorry guys! There will be an international day).

One entry per customer. No exceptions. Don't make me come down there.

Contest ends at 4:00 PM, April 18th, 2011.AND YOUR QUESTIONS ARE:

1) When played on piano, what are the first three notes of "Ode to Joy?"

Saturday, April 16, 2011

You are about to embark on a quest to win a copy of INVINCIBLE SUMMER.

Good luck.

--

First, the rules for every day:

You will have 24 hours, starting from the minute this post goes up, to answer a series of questions. You will post your answers in the comments section of this post. Some of these questions have multiple (perhaps nearly infinite) correct answers, and some do not. You must answer all correctly to have a chance to be the randomly selected winner. There will be one winner each day, and I will announce that winner in the post opening the next round of the contest. If you do not win, you are absolutely free to enter the next few rounds! If you do win, you have 24 hours to email me your mailing information before I pass off to a different winner. And please do not enter again.

To find the answers of the questions, I suggest you try some of the following strategies:

a) look deep inside yourself

b) Google it

c) copy the answers of someone who posted before you

d) ask a muser. Just saying. These guys tend to know things. They're also busy people, so you might be lucky and you might not.

e) ask me. I may take pity on you, especially if you ask me in a funny way.

f) otherwise bribe/cheat/steal. This is a lawless society.

There will be none of that +1 for following or retweeting nonsense, but I would be ever so much obliged if you would consider adding the little book in question to your goodreads shelf, because I am a goodreads whore and sometimes you need little things to make you happy.

NOW. For the special rules for today.

THE PRIZE IS:

One copy of INVINCIBLE SUMMER and one CD of INVINCIBLE SUMMER'S PLAYLIST, as well as one signed bookmark.

THE RESTRICTIONS ARE:

U.S. and Canada only this time (sorry guys! There will be an international day).

One entry per customer. No exceptions. Don't make me come down there.

Contest ends at 2:30 PM, April 17th, 2011.

AND YOUR QUESTIONS ARE:

1) What is Hannah Moskowitz's porn star name?

2) What is the weight of a Tyranitar?

3) What is the worst lyric from your favorite song? (Example: My favorite song is "A Perfect Sonnet" by Bright Eyes, and the worst lyric is absolutely "so I stand in the sun/and I breathe with my lungs" because wow. That's pretty terrible. Obviously there are many correct answers. I want yours.)

Friday, April 15, 2011

I always like to say that I write in returns. And it's something I have to remind myself while I'm writing all the time, ha. If a character says something important or goes somewhere important, he has to somehow return to that space, literally or otherwise. There are very few times I'm not in favor of a character physically returning to a significant place. It always helps.

Invincible Summer is a book about returns, really, because it takes place on the same beach, in the same house, but each part has an entire unspoken year in-between it and the next. So there's a lot you're not seeing, and the location is what pulls the story together. If I had them in a different place every summer, it would be a lot more difficult for both of us, probably. It would be hard for you to see what's changed. That's what returns are about: an impossibly easy way to see what's changed when a space or a room or a moment remains the same.

That's what Bixby Canyon Bridge is about.

And that's the end of the book, guys. The giveaways start tomorrow! I'm crazy excited for them. There will be more details tomorrow, but quickly: each one's going to be open for only 24 hours. At least 1 of the days will allow international entry as well, but most will be only U.S and Canada, sorry. They're going to be ridiculously fun for me (and hopefully fun for you) and, well...I hope that you will like them.

I also hope that you will like Invincible Summer.

And I hope you're having a lovely day.

SAMPLE LYRIC:

Barefoot in the shallow creek,I grabbed some stones from underneathAnd waited for you to speak to me.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

This is one of those songs that appeared somehow on my iTunes. It's also one of my very favorites. So thanks, iTunes ghost!

So really this is a song about frustration with American and capitalism and big business, but it goes so well here because there's something angrily nostalgic and at the same time a little hopeful about it. And it works really well between Not Just Sometimes But Always and Song #20 (the last song!) which are both more serious. It's also a song about coping with bullshit, frankly. And that's relevant on a personal level for Chase the same way it is on a national level in the song.

This is a really exhilarating scene in the book, and I think this works really well.

Also, it's an amazing song.

SAMPLE LYRIC:I remember listening to songs about trains and feeling the rush of wonder At the possibility that the world was infinite and accessible all at the same time.And then it was songs about highways and born to be wild and little red corvetteAnd the road went on forever in my mind.But now it's clogged bumper to bumper with stinking SUVs and two-story pickup trucks that can drive over anything except the two-story pickup truck right in front of it.Not even the highways look the same, Starbucks and 7-elevens and Walmarts jam the feeder roads. We don't live around this mess, we live under it.

It's been a long long long long long long long long long long long long timeIt's been a long long long long long long long long long long long long timeSince I felt fine.

I'm putting a bit of a spoiler warning on this one. Don't listen if you hate knowing anything (though why would you be following along with these posts, really).

Besides that, I don't know what to say about this one.

It's by far the most important song on the playlist. Or to anything I've ever written. And it still makes me cry.

I should have dedicated the book to it, I'll tell you that.

SAMPLE LYRIC:I tune the radio to drown out these voices I don't knowI'm suddenly an empty house that almost fills up with homeThere are days and nights when I don't need to close my eyesAnd they feel as real to meLike an elegy In disguise

CORRELATING PASSAGE:note: this is the last passage I'll be posting. The last two songs come naked. Sorry.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

We're four songs from the end, and we've finally hit the first of the VERY IMPORTANT SONGS.

Long Division is one of my favorite songs. I'm sure I'm not the only Death Cab fan who views this as a sequel to "Your Heart is an Empty Room." It's about someone who used to run away all the time who's trying to change. Trying to stay.

This one really could have gone anywhere on the playlist. It's where it is more for mood than anything. It provides a good break between "Little Sparrow" and song #18.

But this song is hugely important, because this song is where Noah came from.

It's no secret that Noah is one of my very favorites of the characters I've written. And that might be because he was the easiest. Being inside Noah's head would have been a nightmare (and a bitch for you to read, because God that kid is angry) but his lines were always the easiest ones to write. I could space out a little while I was writing dialogue with Noah. I would start with one line and then I would just let myself run with it. Noah is smart and poetic and cynical and so incredibly affectionate, and he knows a ton about the outside world and just about nothing about himself.

And in a lot of ways, Invincible Summer is Noah's story. Claudia is the real hero--I will forever maintain that Claudia is the hero--but if the story has a tragic hero, it's absolutely Noah. And the fact that the book is in Chase's head let me have a really fun time writing Noah, because Chase absolutely adores him. I mean, fuck, Chase is sleeping with a girl in attempts to be closer to him. It's fucked-up and crazy and it is all because of this song.

This song is where I got Noah, and Melinda, and the relationship between them. This song is all of that.

So let's have a lot of text today.

SAMPLE LYRIC:

His head was a city of paper buildingsAnd the echoes that remainedOf old friends and lovers, their features bleedingTogether in his brain

And once it'd start, it was harder toTell them apart

He was always distractedBy the very mentionOf an open door'Cause he had sworn not to be what he'd been beforeTo be a remain remain remain remainder To be a remain remain remain remainder

The television was snowing softlyAs she hunted for her keysShe said she never envisioned him the type of person capable of such deceit

And they carried on like long divisionAnd it was clear with every pageThat they were further away from a solution that would playWithout a remain remain remain remainder

CORRELATING PASSAGE:

I don't blame Noah for what happened. None of us do. I think, for a while, he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for us to lose it and finally scream at him that we were so angry and so disappointed and we wished he'd never come home that night. He used to steal my stuff every time he came over. He wouldn't be sneaky about it, and he always took stuff that I'd be sure to notice, like my favorite shirt or my toothbrush. I confronted him about it once, and he kept saying, “Why don't you tell me what you're really mad about? Why don't you tell me what the real problem is?” until I eventually told him to shut up and just stop stealing my shit. It's not as if we're still fighting about that, but that was when he stopped coming over.

I take a deep breath. I'm feeling okay about going back. Quiet, but okay. I'm feeling ready. After all, as Noah and Camus and probably Melinda—though I don't think of her much anymore—would say, "one always finds one's burden again."

Monday, April 11, 2011

I heard the cover on American Idol (judgey judge judge, yeah I know) and I loved that it sounded so dark and haunting. Since then, I know and love the original--I love Dolly and always will, and I'm not sure why I didn't know this song--but David Cook's version still works for me on a very different level. It's darker and more desperate, and it has a hollow, echoey sound to it. David' Cook's version is something you'd scream outside at night, so it...worked well for this part of the book.

I need to start being cagey at this point. So you don't get an excerpt. Just know that they lyrics to this song have just about nothing to do with the scene in question, or with the book at all. It's all about the tone of it, and the desperation, and the darkness. But if you take bits out of context...it can work. So when I listen to this song, I let those lines jump out at me.

SAMPLE LYRIC: If I were a little sparrowO'er these mountains I would flyI would find him, I would find himLook into his lying eyes

I would flutter all around himOn my little sparrow wingsI would ask him, I would ask himWhy he let me love in vain

CORRELATING PASSAGE: (um...how about some Camus instead?)

"Originally innocent without knowing it, we were now guilty without meaning to be."

Sunday, April 10, 2011

This song. Not only did it appear, like No One's Boy, on my iTunes with no reasonable explanation for its existence, but you can't actually buy it on iTunes. It doesn't have it. When I wanted to get it again for my new computer, I had to jump through all these hoops and get a download of it, which depresses me, because I never pirate music. (Or anything. Seriously.)

While looking for a video of this song, I discovered that a lot of people are saying, "This song just appeared on my computer!" Song. Where are you coming from.

So. This song. No idea how it got there, but it went on the playlist the first time I heard it mostly because it works so well with No One's Boy. You'll see in the excerpt that I very obviously am alluding to No One's Boy in this scene. This is just...an angrier, more final version of it.

We're really getting towards the end of the 3rd summer now. Something's about to happen.

Five songs left.

Also, a nice big excerpt for you today! Right after the--

SAMPLE LYRIC:

So drink your coffeeI made you breakfastYou're wearing my t-shirt for the last timeA revelation, we'll never make itI'm staring at you for the last timeI'm sorryYou know I'm sorry

You lay in bed next to him at nightConvince yourself that what you did was rightInstead of him, you'll want me backYou can't move onI know you'll wind up missing me

CORRELATING PASSAGE:

For some reason, my response to this is to take my restless hands and pull my shoes off and throw them toward the bed. Then I'm on my feet, feeling the carpet grain with my toes and wishing I was feeling the sand. Digging in with my toes, I won't get off I won't get off I won't move you can't make me while the ocean wears the sand away.

The bass booms downstairs and I hate it, I hate it. I can't hear the rain anymore. Maybe it stopped.

“I am not your boy,” I'm saying. “I'm not anybody's boy.”

Noah doesn't move.

“Not yours.” My voice is so hoarse and the next thing I know I'm facing Noah and screaming, “Get off the floor! Get off the floor and take me home!”

Saturday, April 9, 2011

I love Death Cab for Cutie very, very dearly. This is the first song on the playlist that comes from the magical album Narrow Stairs, which is really the reason Invincible Summer exists. The album came out on May 18th, 2008, and I still hadn't listened to it a month and a half later, when I started IS. It was just sitting in my iTunes.

(side note: I think at some point in the past I've said that I wrote IS in 2009. That is a lie. I wrote it over summer 2008, and it sold in summer 2009. I have figured this out now. So IS is coming out, same as Break, about 2 years after I wrote it. Zombie Tag will be the quickest, and it's coming out about a year and a half after I wrote it. Publishing is slow! Fun facts.)

So one rainy day I had nothing to do and I wanted to write a book, so I listened to the album. And two songs in particular jumped out and shaped, respectively, the character of Noah and the end of the book.

This isn't either of those songs. This one made it to the playlist after, but it comes first chronologically. But I'm telling you all that stuff about Narrow Stairs because this is the point in the playlist where we get to the songs that directly inspired the book. The others were mostly just ones that worked. From here on out, they really contributed.

So let's do this.

This is a song about a girl.

SAMPLE LYRIC:

I'm starting to feelWe stayed together out of fear of dying aloneI've been slipping through the yearsMy old clothes don't fit like they once didSo they hang like ghosts of the people I've been

CORRELATING PASSAGE:For the first time in a long time I think she looks beautiful. Not hot and not disgusting. Just beautiful.

Friday, April 8, 2011

This song is, in a lot of ways--most of which I'll get into in two days--a pair with song #15. Their passages cross-reference each other. I got them both in the same way, meaning...I have no idea.

No One's Boy and song #15 are examples of playlist making at its weirdest and most exciting. When I was working on the first draft of the playlist, when I'd hardly started the first draft of the book, I scrolled through iTunes and chose songs that sounded good and two songs that I didn't know that had interesting titles. "No One's Boy" sounded like it could work.

I have no idea, no idea at all, how this song and #15 got into my iTunes. I have a theory that they were on my computer before I got there (which would be bizarre and likely impossible, but there you go). They didn't come on a soundtrack with anything else. I didn't hear them on TV first. I had no other songs by either band.

I really don't know.

But I love this song. It's raw and it's creepy and it's everything that the next few chapters had to be, and this song gets me right into it. It's mean and it's pleading, but at the same time it's completely adamant. And I always, always picture people on a Ferris Wheel when I hear it. They're sitting in their little cart, having an argument, just about to get off. This isn't a scene in the book.

But it might as well be.

Anyway, we're pretty much full-speed ahead after this point.

This song is so perfect that, sure, what the hell, let's have the whole song here. It's short.

THE WHOLE DAMN THING:

Angel,You missed your chance to be the prom queenAnd so you turned into a wet dreamStar of your own videoLate night show on the floorA bad girl no one's watchingAs you slow move to the rhythmOf this sweet soundBooming through the radioLate night show that they ignoreAre you lonely

'Cause I'm no one's boyI'm no one's boyAnd I'll be all you needOnly if you pleadPray doAngel blue

If you'll be my girlIf you'll be my girlI'm no ones boyAnd I'll be all you needBut only if you'll bleedPray do

Hey hey, don't walk away from meI found youI can find you

CORRELATING PASSAGE:

God, how many times will she have to sleep with one of us before she understands that nobody lives with Noah, Noah just sometimes lives with you.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

YEP. Cheating again. A little less this time, since this is faaar from my favorite Motion City Soundtrack song (though I still love it because, I mean...Motion City Soundtrack).

It's hard for a song to fit a mood better than Hello Helicopter fits Chase's 3rd summer. We're talking here about serious existential angst, but there's also the sense that you're sharing this angst with someone. This song is about "us," not "me."

And I think that's appropriate here, because Chase and Noah are, in every sense, with every pun intended, going down together.

The excerpt is from one of my favorite scenes. Noah's just home from, er, visiting Melinda, and he and Chase are standing on the deck, playing guitar, and trying to use her as a metaphor.

SAMPLE LYRIC:Hello helicopter, have you heard the news?No one gives a shit about the things they doWe all waste and consume, destroy and ruin everything we touchIt's easy not to think when you're not told that much

I'm not saying anything you haven't heard beforeI'm just trying to understand the way we are

CORRELATING PASSAGE:

“And she talked about you,” he says.

“God, she always talks about you when I'm with her. Noah kisses me softer than that.”“Chase is so much more passionate.”

“Noah takes his time.” I play a minor chord.

“Chase doesn't hesitate like you do.” Noah digs an almond out of the ice cream and tosses it off the balcony. “God. Why do we come back to this girl, Chase?”

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

This is another song I'm not incredibly fond of, but I never mind listening to it because it works so damn well. I know it originally because I heard it in that horrible movie Never Back Down, and I grabbed it because I heard the line about Cherry Valence.

It's one of the first songs that made it onto the playlist that wasn't direct inspiration for the story. We haven't gotten to any of those yet--those are songs 16, 18, and 20.

This is the first song of Chase's 3rd summer, and this is really a turning point in the book, I think, because the third summer is nothing like the other two. Chase has changed because his life has changed. He's not the idealistic, hopeful kid he used to be. In a lot of ways, he's turning into Noah.

He's a little cynical and a little sad and very much angry, but he's still Chase, which means he still keeps this close to him and regards it as some kind of personal failure, and he still holds onto his family harder than anything.

Time Won't Let Me Go is a song about growing up against your will, and about regret and disconnected. And that's kind of what's eating at Chase this summer. Coming back to the beach, this place was supposed to be his childhood forever, doesn't help. He doesn't want to think about college. He doesn't want to see Bella after two years without her. And he definitely doesn't want to hear Noah and Melinda.

But yeah, some things haven't changed so much. There's still Melinda. There's still Camus. And Noah.

In completely unrelated news...this is my 200th post on this blog, and I want to thank you guys so incredibly much for reading the blog, and following me on twitter, and most of all for reading the books, if you do. I don't think you know how much it means to me that you do. I don't think you could possibly know.

SAMPLE LYRIC:I am so homesick now forSomeone that I never knewI am so homesick now forSomeplace I will never be

Time won't let me goTime won't let me goIf I could do it all againI'd go back and change everythingBut time won't let me go

CORRELATING PASSAGE:Bella comes by Shannon's room to ask if a shirt is hers or his. She gives me a polite smile. “Hey, Chase. How've you been?”

“Fine. You?”

She nods.

Shannon says to me, “I have a college book you can borrow, if you want. I can show you around the common application, let you see how it's done.”

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Remember when I said I don't use Motion City Soundtrack, since I have some crazy obsession with them and know all their songs like they were born from my own brain? I lied! About the first part. Not the brain part. That part's real.

But! I don't use my favorites of their songs (um, #magicgayfish playlist notwithstanding, I guess) and I'm totally right when I say that they don't work as well as other songs. The temptation to rock out to them without listening to the words is totally there and totally a problem. I have to really concentrate if I'm going to think about the song the way I want to.

But! Eventually you get to that place with all the songs, once you've listened through the playlist a zillion times, so you're constantly in that weird interstitial space between trying to concentrate on the writing and reminding yourself waitwait this part is important.

So. The Worst Part. Back in our last song, if you recall, SOMETHING BAD HAPPENED. And after bad things happen, there tends to be aftermath. This is the last song of the second summer, which is appropriate because it is the 10th song on a 20 song playlist. Halfway through the book, halfway through the playlist. Convenient!

(We will finish going through the playlist on April 15th, therefore, meaning giveaways will start on the 16th and continue through the 19th, so be aware of that.)

And so. This song.

The most important thing to know about Invincible Summer is that it is a story about a family.

SAMPLE LYRIC:

All the same sad livesAll the love that disappearsWe are aching bonesAnd wasted years

We have few regretsSave it for every night aloneIn the sinking shipAnd haunted home

Monday, April 4, 2011

I was a big fan of The Fray when I was in middle school, and I still like some of their songs, but this is not one of them. I'm not exactly sure how it ended up on my iTunes, but I assume I bought it at some point--unlike three of the songs later in the playlist, where I have literally no idea where they came from.

But when I'm making a playlist, the first thing I do is find songs with appropriate titles, then listen through 'em listening to see if the lyrics work.

"City Hall" was a title that immediately jumped out at me for this part of the story, because it's a deliberation scene of sorts. It's a very depressing meeting. The lyrics work, too, to an extent.

It's not a perfect song, and it's not at all my favorite moment in the playlist. And that's probably why I kept it.

This isn't supposed to be a comfortable point in the book. This is SOMETHING BAD HAPPENS, part A. If I liked it, something would be pretty wrong. And of the two SOMETHING BAD HAPPENS, this is the more uncomfortable, less pretty of the two. This is just messy and gross and unfun, and it's supposed to be.

But we have one of my favorite songs right after, so it makes up for itself, I think.

This is also the first passage I've used, so far, that has sign language, though it's just the one word. There's a fair amount of sign language in the book, as one of the characters is Deaf. I made the choice to go with ASL word order for the book, for two main reasons. 1. ASL has its own grammar, and this is correct, and 2. none of the characters in the book are fluent in ASL, least of all our narrator. A lot of it is pidgin signing, and a lot of the translations are way incomplete, as you can see below. There's a whole theme involving lack of communication through the book, so this plays into that.

I also think this is the first passage with Claudia, Chase's sister. And she's pretty badass.

SAMPLE LYRIC:

Decision on the dock headMake up your mind and if you get consensusDrop me a line

The city hall in my mind, got together last nightRumors of reelection started to fly

CORRELATING PASSAGE:“No,” Claudia says. “Just keep trying, okay? Don't give up, what the hell. This isn't like a do-it-yourself project gone wrong or . . . or a game of spider solitaire.” She signs spider.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

It's filthy and dirty and really hot, both in the sexy sense and the sense that you are doing it stuck to leather seats in the back of someone's car, probably still wearing half of your bikini, no makeup, sweaty. Pretty is something you gave up several days and several sunburns earlier.

So we're at that part of the book.

If you've read any of the summaries of Invincible Summer, you'll know that Chase and his brother are sleeping with the same girl.

It's not what the book is about.

But it's there, and it goes something like this.

SAMPLE LYRIC:

Slang with me, I don't wanna get my hands dirtySlang with me, I just wanna get soakin' wetSlang with me, I don't wanna get my hands dirtyAll I ever wanna get is slang

God, maybe she knew I would tell him. Maybe she wanted us to fight over her like hungry animals. I want to tell her that I can tell when I'm being used, but this seems like a lofty statement when I don't think I've ever been used before.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Another cover. I grew up with this song--it's one of my mom's favorites--and I remember the first time I heard this cover, and it blew my mind. It's a much younger, much more energetic, much more...well, summery version. And it remains, along with Rufus Wainwright's "Across the Universe," one of my favorite covers of all time.

This is the most recent song to make it onto the playlist. I tweak as I go along, but this song didn't come until this winter. So in a way it's kind of cheating, because it wasn't there when I wrote the book. But I can't believe that it wasn't.

It's a perfect 2nd summer song for Chase, when being infatuated with a girl is still exciting. Especially when she's unobtainable.

SAMPLE LYRIC:I can see you-Your brown skin shinin' in the sunYou got that hair slicked back and those Wayfarers on, babyI can tell you my love for you will still be strongAfter the boys of summer have gone

CORRELATING PASSAGE:

Bella never made me feel this way. Bella was just lips. We're talking about whole bodies, now. We're talking about lungs.

Friday, April 1, 2011

One of my favorite covers. If you haven't heard it, it's really beautiful, and the video (featuring a baby Dakota Fanning!) is amazing as well. I absolutely love the original Beatles song (I have every Beatles song memorized, including the ones in German. Thanks Mom!) and the cover gives it a sunnier feel, which worked well for IS. It's a little more intense but at the same time more joyous. It's definitely a different feel from the original, but the song is strong enough to be able to withstand anything anyone does to it, I'm pretty sure. The version from the movie Across the Universe is also beautiful.

One of the reasons this version really worked for me is the passion and the level of insistence in it. "Nothing's gonna change my world" is an ambiguous statement--is it a peaceful statement, a refusal of something, or a regret?--and this version puts a lot of power behind that line. So I hear a refusal in it. I'm not going to allow anything to change my world. And that works very well for Chase.

The thing is that Chase's world isn't exactly normal, which is why I chose the passage I've chosen for this song.

I mentioned in the last post that there's a turning point here, and it's the shift to the romantic/sexual/whatever part of the book, when things get less simple for Chase. Except that lack of simplicity isn't just about the girl next door.

It's just a little thing. And this whole element is in little things. But it's worth confirming, I think.

Some reviewers have mentioned that there are weird moments between the siblings. That there are times that relationships seem uncomfortably intimate, and almost...incestuous. I picture them kind of whispering this, with a sad little glance my way, like, poor hannah didn't notice this.

So let's just say that yes, I noticed it, and that this isn't the kind of thing I would do accidentally. Full stop.

SAMPLE LYRIC:Limitless undying love whichshines around me like a million sunsIt calls me on and on across the universe

About Me

hannah moskowitz

YA/MG author with Simon Pulse, Chronicle, and Roaring Brook Press. Out now are four YAs: BREAK, INVINCIBLE SUMMER, GONE GONE GONE, and TEETH, and two MGs: ZOMBIE TAG and MARCO IMPOSSIBLE. To come: NOT OTHERWISE SPECIFIED and SCRAPBOOK. Publishing makes me frustrated and confused and indignant and I love every minute of it. At least most of the time.